Everything is always in process. Flapping like a butterfly, the Network is watching and working on the Compassion Project. The First sharing economy was knowledge. A non-profit blog enabling the exploration and efficient sharing of information, thoughts, and opinion, regarding autism, cosmology, philosophy, politics, psychology, science, sociology, theology, and truth. "It is time to tell all."

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Monday, October 15, 2012

Harper's Stealth Deregulation of Trade with China

The following is from an email that I received today from Leadnow.ca regarding Harper's stealth deregulation of trade with China, negotiated in secret and up for automatic approval without debate or voting.

The principles of reciprocity and fair trade between countries is as old as trade itself. However, what neoliberals term "free trade" is a thing of their invention. It is code for deregulation and the suppression of wages and workers. Thus it is code for the suppression of democracy.

Harper works well with the Chinese oligarchy, dictators with capitalist hearts, because they are his kind of people and he wishes he was one. This may be his first step in selling Canada outright to them.

In two weeks, Prime Minister Harper could pass the most
secretive and sweeping trade deal of a generation. This deal would pave the way for a massive natural resource
buyout and allow foreign corporations to sue the Canadian government in secret
tribunals, restricting Canadians from making democratic decisions about our
economy, environment and energy.1

Most Canadians have never heard of FIPA, the Canada-China Foreign Investment
Protection Agreement, because Prime
Minister Harper is trying to sneak it through without a single vote or debate
in Parliament.2,3

Canadians have a right
to determine our future, but this agreement will undermine our democratic
rights and lock us into an inescapable path of foreign-ownership and resource
extraction until at least 2040.

The Canada-China FIPA is set for automatic approval on October 31st unless we
get the word out now that the Harper Conservatives are trying bypass Parliament
and sneak this deal by Canadians. That’s why we partnered with SumOfUs.org on
this campaign – if enough of us raise our voices now, we can create a massive
public outcry to stop this devastating deal in its tracks.

Alongside this deal, the Harper government is trying to speed through the sale
of Nexen, a major Canadian oil and gas company, to the Chinese National
Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), one of China’s massive state-owned oil
companies.4The
$15 billion-dollar Nexen takeover will open the floodgates to a wave of foreign
buyouts of Canada's natural resources.

If FIPA passes, a
Chinese company can take over Canadian resources and then sue Canadian
governments – provincial or federal – in secret, if the government does
anything that threatens the company’s profits.

Any Canadian law or government decision – even ones that protect Canadian jobs,
our environment, our economy and our families – could be fought in secret
tribunals outside of our legal system. Arbitrators
unaccountable to the Canadian public would have the power to award billions in
damages to foreign corporations if we do anything that hurts corporate profits,
like improve environmental standards or slow down the export of cheap,
unprocessed resources.1,5,6

Time is running out. We
have two weeks before FIPA is set to pass into law, and the Nexen takeover
could be approved at any time. Canadians, including many Conservative
MPs, oppose the Nexen takeover, and Prime Minister Harper has just asked for a
30 day extension to regroup. We need a massive public outcry now.

With hope and respect,
Matthew, Jamie, Maggie, Emma, Ryan, Adam and Sanna on behalf of the
Leadnow team

Additional
Information

The ability for corporations to sue foreign governments in private courts,
called “investor-state arbitration,” is a controversial practice built into
many trade deals like NAFTA that has cost Canada millions and over-ruled
democratic decisions, but none impose the level of secrecy in the Canada-China
FIPA.

Incredibly, if BC tries to regulate or block Enbridge’s Northern Gateway
Pipeline, Sinopec, another Chinese state-owned oil company with investments in
Canada’s natural resource infrastructure, could sue the BC government for
damages, and we may never even hear about it the case or its results.5,6

Other countries like India, South Africa and Australia are moving away from
this kind of trade deal. Last year Australia rejected investor-state
arbitration due to concerns that it would “constrain the ability of Australian
governments to make laws on social, environmental and economic matters”.7,8
Why is Canada moving backwards?

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About Me

The Pündi are a race from my fantasy novels, the Continuum Chronicles, an exploration of spiritual evolution theory. Appearing like us, they are really child-sized aliens cursed by their own intelligence, trapped as observers unable to share their knowledge. They often develop an individual obsessive interest.

I write and publish, not selling anything, just trying to share ideas that might profit everyone. I aim not for originality but creativity, organizing what exists to generate new associations. I'm a writer with thick glasses and autism, familiar with the struggle for clarity. Novelist, researcher, internet activist, spiritual evolutionist, and process philosopher, I believe in democratic social capitalism with a well-regulated engine of sustainable markets. As a writer, I find that most blockages tend to be improvements trying to occur to me.